our show, and thank you at home for watching. [cheers and applause] ♪ peter shumlin. chris wallace meeting washington's cutest celebrity, baby bao bao. crisis in ukraine. who's running the country? we'll discuss ukraine's future and whether it will ultimately decide with the west or russia with two leading senators. dick durbin, number two democrat in the senate. and republican kelly ayotte, a member of the senate armed services committee. and we'll ask our sunday panel whether president obama has badly misjudged vladimir putin. then, the nation's governors come to washington to tackle tough issues like immigration and obamacare.

we'll talk with wisconsin governor scott walker and vth's peter shumlin. and our power player of the week. i get up close and personal with washington's newest and certainly most adorable celebrity. the giant panda cub bao bao. all right now on "fox news sunday." hello again from fox news in washington. we start with ukraine, where the situation is changing by the hour. the parliament has voted president yanukovych out of office. opposition forces appear to have taken over most of the capital of kiev. but the president says he will not step down and speaks of a coup carried out by bandits. let's get the latest from fox senior foreign affairs correspondent amy kellogg reporting from moscow. amy? >> reporter: hi, chris. well, the parliament is very quickly cobbling together an interim government. even though while president yanukovych, or former president

yanukovych is in hiding, he has still not resigned and it's not clear whether he or any of his supporters will pick up resistance. the parliament voted in today, the new acting president, the speaker. they put out warrants. we can assume that has to do with inquiries. last night former prime minister julia was released from jail. she is yanukovych's archrival. an aide to yanukovych said he was in eastern ukraine as of saturday night but doesn't plan to leave the country. state border guards said she tried to leave the country yesterday but the plane was not allowed to takeoff. the state continues to you are ch deescalation and contra

institutional change. lavrov is making new demands under the influence of what he calls, quote, armed extremists and rioters. russia, of course, chris, pressured ukraine out of signing an agreement with the eu offering the nearly bankrupt country a lot of money to keep it afloat. russia's now cut off that money and the finance minister has suggested ukraine to the imf now for help. essentially, chris, wishing ukraine well. >> amy kellogg reporting from moscow. for more, two senate leaders on foreign policy. from new hampshire, kelly ayotte, a member of the armed services committee. and from illinois, dick durbin, the senate's number two democrat and a member of the foreign relations committee. senator durbin, you spoke with the former prime minister yesterday. what is your latest information? have the protesters and the west, have they won in ukraine? >> well, chris, it was quite a relief yesterday.

julia has been in prison for 2 1/2 years. i've been working for almost two years for her release. she was finally released by unanimous vote in their parliament. i spoke to her just after she had addressed the crowd. she sounded tired. and looked frail on the reports that we've seen. but she told me, she assured me she's looking for a peaceful resolution to the problems in ukraine, to follow the constitution and the law. this whole charge of a coup by yanukovych makes no sense. the coup if any was by the parliament that enacted the laws that made it clear that they want to change in ukraine. >> senator ayotte, as we say, ukraine's parliament has voted president yanukovych out of office. but he is calling ate coup and refusing to step down. what happens now? >> i would say, chris, that they need to focus on forming a unity government. yanukovych needs to step aside. i will say this.

now that the olympics are over we need to watch the behavior of the russians. and i believe the president needs to up his game and send a clear, unequivocal public message to putin not to interfere in what is happening in ukraine. to let the ukrainian people determine their future to ensure that there is no interference in their sovereignty. i feel this is an important time for him to do that. >> let me pick up on that. president obama famously came into office saying that he intended to repair relations between the united states and russia. which brought us to that famous moment involving then secretary of state hillary clinton and the russian foreign minister. take a look. >> i wanted to present you with a little gift which represents what president obama and vice president biden and i have been saying. that is, we want to reset our relationship.

>> let's do it together. >> intut turns out instead of reset, that button said overcharge. that's where the problems began. senator ayotte, has president obama's reset effort with russia failed? and has it contributed to the problems that we have in ukraine, in syria, in iran? >> yes, it has, chris. i think that's why this is an opportunity for the president to really be unequivocal with putin right now in ukraine. what happens in ukraine very much matters. they need to determine their future, not russia. we have seen, obviously,behavio harboring snowden to the effort to interfere in syria and also with arming the assad regime. in addition to that, thinking about the reports of their violatio violations. the reset policy has failed. time to reset the reset. kree yan presents an opportunity for the president to do that with clear american leadership for a good outcome.

>> let me follow up on that. because president obama this week warned all the parties in ukraine not to step over the line, which reminded a lot of people of a comment he made, a warning he gave to syria's president assad back in 2012. let's look at both of those comments. >> we'll be monitoring very carefully the situation, recognizing that along with our european partners and the international community, there will be consequences if people step over the line. >> a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. >> senator durbin, this week the president said that this is not a cold war chess war between us and the russians and it's not a zero sum game. but there are a lot of people, a lot of experts, who say that's exactly the way vladimir putin is playing it and that he's taken advantage of barack obama on a lot of these issues.

>> let me say this. every new president is going to try to forge a new relationship with russia and try to have a more peaceful outcome to our dealings. expect it whether the president is democrat or republican. president george w. bush said he looked in putin's eyes and saw a spiritual man. let's remember that each president tries to find a positive track. but let's not forget that vladimir putin wasn't just a member of the kgb, he was the head of the secret police, the soviet kgb. this was a man that we should take very seriously. in this circumstance, i know what's going to happen next. they're going to continue, russia and moscow and putin, will continue to pressure ukraine. and the trump card they own is natural gas. gas prom provides gas for these countries. when putin doesn't like their political behavior he cuts it off or raises the price out of sight. he has the power to pressure. we have to do everything we can to encourage ukraine to move forward peacefully toward democracy but understand that

putin has been a threat for many deck decades. >> beyond rhetoric, then, sthoor durbin, what does the president, what does the european union do if they're going to put -- amidst threats if they're going to use gas as a weapon? what does the west do? because rhetoric isn't going to be enough. >> we have to combine our efforts with the european union to help ukraine move forward in a peaceful, democratic way. we have to put the pressure on putin to stop his efforts to undermine this -- this natural evolution toward democracy. yanukovych has always been a puppet of moscow. that is why he headed to the russian part of the ukraine and why he ultimately will leave the country, i'm guessing. but we can -- in the west can gather with the european union and put a force in ukraine that moves it toward western ideals and values. >> when you say put a force, are you talking about boots on the ground? >> absolutely not. let me underline not.

a lot of my colleagues, i'm not pointing to my friend kelly ayotte in this instance, a lot of my colleagues think the answer for any conflict in the world is for the united states to invade. i am not one of them. i have watched two wars, thank goodness, come to an end. i want to make certain before we ever -- >> when you said force, sir, what did you mean? >> there are political forces involved in this. that's the way we should work with them. political and economic force moving ukraine in the right direction toward democracy. >> so let me give you a chance to respond, senator ayotte. you never mentioned the idea of a force. i guess the question is, one, is this over? have the rebels won? and, two, what do you think is the possibility of a counterstrike by -- whether it's political or economic, by the russians? and even the possibility of splitting off the eastern half of the country which is very pro-russian? >> well, chris, that's why i think the president needs to be clear public and unequivocal right now with a message to

putin. because the idea that they could actually interfere with the territorial sovereignty of the ukraine, i mean, look what happened with georgia. i think that this is a very real possibility. and so we need to be very clear, work together. and i think there is economic pressure that we could provide. senator durbin mentioned, we can provide a leadership role in the imf. we also, of course, in other instances have imposed sanctions. not only on the oligarchs, but also we think what we've done with russia could be expanded. >> let me turn briefly to syria. because we had this deal under which assad, the president of syria, was supposed to turn over his entire chemical weapon stockpile by early february. so far it has turned over only 11% of that stockpile. in the meantime, assad remains in power. he continues to slaughter his own people. and as we say, he's holding on to his chemical weapons, most

his chemical weapon stockpile. senator ayotte, who's winning in syria right now, putin or obama? >> unfortunately, it's putin right now. and, again, putin can play a role of putting pressure on assad. they're not putting enough pressure on assad. assad regime is slow, dragging its feet, slow rolling trying to comply with the chemical weapons agreement. so right now assad is winning which is very unfortunate. and what i'm worried about also is the recent testimony of the director of national intelligence, clapper, about how the al qaeda extremists in syria are now actually posing a threat to our homeland. so this is a real issue for us as well. >> senators, we have a couple of minutes left. i want to get into one other issue. that is the president's budget. we got some information about the budget that he will release a week from tuesday. let's put up the details on the screen. he will reportedly call for an end to the era of austerity and ask for $56 billion in new spending for job training, early

childhood education and other initiatives. and he won't include a measure to slow cost of living increases in social security which was in his last budget. senator ayotte, this so called chained cpi was offered only as part of a grand bargain. you republicans rejected that. briefly what do you think of the president's new budget from what you've heard so far? >> well, this is news to me. the air of austerity since the president has been in office, we've added $6 trillion more to the debt. so we're over $17 trillion in debt. there hasn't been an age of austerity. it's really disappointing that the president hasn't stepped up really to lead this effort of a grand -- a deal, i think, that needs to be done for the nation. it began when he didn't embrace, obviously, the presidential commission. it's gone forward from there. to see this budget, it's really

a political document. it's not what we need for america when we're $17 trillion in debt. >> senator durbin, you have proposed substantial reform of entitlements including social security apart from any grand bargain p p you say we need it because we're going to run out of money. but the president as we pointed out is taking at least one reform in the cost of living adjustment off the table. as another point in this whole question of spending, the white house argues we can spend more now because according to the congressional budget office, deficits are going down. you can see it up on the screen. in billions of dollars from $514 billion this year deficit to $478 billion. but they ignore the rest of the cbo projection which is that starting in 2016, deficits start going back up again. senator? >> i can just tell you this, chris. since president obama has been in office, we have reached a point we're cutting the annual deficits in half. and we're going to reduce the overall debt of the united states by $3 trillion over the next ten years.

simpson/bowles had a goal of $4 trillion. we can get that additional $1 trillion by passing comprehensive immigration reform. which has stalled in the house of representatives. what the president is saying in his budget, we need to get america back to work. we need to make sure that the people who get up every day go to work and work hard can make it. they're living paycheck to paycheck. we've got to be more sensitive to the fact that more americans working, paying taxes, is going to expand our economy and reduce our deficit. >> we're going to have to leave it there. to be continued. the budget doesn't even come out until a week from tuesday. senator durbin, senator ayotte, thank you both. thanks for joining us today. we want to ask the obama administration about the crisis in ukraine. but they decided to put national security adviser susan rice on only one show today. in her first sunday appearance since 2012 when she blamed the benghazi terror attack on reaction to an anti-islam video. of course, fox has led the way in questioning how the

administration handled benghazi. perhaps susan rice didn't want to answer the tough questions we would have asked. what happens now in ukraine and what does it mean for relations between barack obama and vladimir putin? our sunday panel tackles that next. and what would you like to ask the panel? go to facebook or twitter

our approach in the united states is not to see these as some cold war chessboard in which we're in competition with russia. >> president obama addressing the crisis in ukraine this week and downplaying the role of the u.s. and russia. and it's time now for our sunday group. syndicated columnist george

will, former congresswoman jane harman, heritage action for america's michael needham and fox news political analyst juan williams. well, president obama called president putin on friday. we're told they spoke for an hour about ukraine and syria and iran, and afterwards white house officials called it surprisingly positive and constructive. in fact, george, what's more, these officials are now talking about a possible meeting between president obama and president putin in russia this summer to make a -- sign possibly a trade deal using a term of art i learned from the comic strip "peanuts." is this lucy and the football all over again? >> it could be. the president may not look upon this as a cold war chessboard, but putin clearly does, and it's going to be interesting when the olympic flame is extinguished later today and putin is free from his public relations exercise at the olympics, what is he going to do? the real danger is the dismemberment of the ukraine

because the eastern ukraine is russian-speaking and associated culturally and historically with russia. western ukraine much more close to europe, once part of the austria hungarian empire, part of poland, so it's got a very mixed history. the united states can influence this probably by weighing in with what putin has used quite effectively with money because ukraine needs the money. chris, the dutch, portuguese, the spaniards, the french, the british have all lost empires, and with varying speeds and gracefulness they reconciled themselves to that. putin is unreconciled to the collapse of his empire. >> congresswoman harman, i ask you this as a former democratic ranking democrat. you ready for this? >> i'm ready. >> has russian president putin outmaneuvered obama when it comes to ukraine, syria and iran? >> well, he's an obstacle, there's no question. it ain't over till it's over,

and i would like -- i think we would all like to see a more forceful administration policy. after all, we had a forceful policy on libya, and when that happened, a lot of us said, well, this will set an example for syria and it should set an example for ukraine and elsewhere. and the president said that he would intervene if there was an acute humanitarian crisis, an international coalition and a way to do this without boots on the ground to protect vital american interests. so i see this playing out across all three theaters. i don't exactly agree with george, by the way. i agree that eastern ukraine aligns with russia and western ukraine is more western. but i don't think the people of ukraine want to split up the country. and i think in that sense the president's right to listen to the people. >> i didn't mean to suggest the ukranians would want to split the country but that the -- the russian army might. >> michael, i'd like you to weigh in on the putin/obama

dynamic and also give me your sense of what's at stake with ukraine. >> what's going on in the ukraine isn't in isolation. you have a situation in syria where the president of the united states drew a red line. he then allowed syria to go past that red line. then needed vladimir putin to come in and play statesman to get america out of the mess that had been created by that failure to enforce a red line. a situation in ukraine which is easy to understand. majority of ukranian people who want to move towards europe, the crooks and spooks in russia who don't want to let that happen, and the vacuum of american leadership in the world that has been created by our failure to enforce red lines in syria, by what's going on in venezuela right now and our own hemisphere creates an opportunity for a lot of mischief to be going on which is what you see with the russians mingling in ukraine. >> we asked you for questions, and we got one on facebook from ellen clagy and let me read it to you. since obama draws red lines and nothing changes, why would putin respect anything obama says? juan, how do you answer ellen? it's a pretty good question. >> well, i don't think it's a

matter of somehow waning western influence or this is about president obama. to the contrary, what i think is we have president putin's enemies taking control in kiev. and yulia tymoshenko, you know, who has long been his rival in terms of that orbit now looking as if she is going to resume having power. but you go beyond that and you start to think about, you know, even the political consequences. he tried to invest money in the ukraine, $15 billion. it didn't carry the day with the people. you know, he has a concern about that naval base in crimea. he has concern about the gas reserves. all of that now is in question, so to me western influence, the deal that was struck with the germans, the p to the yanukovych to leave. and has put his battle, you know, this geopolitical game

that i believe putin is playing, in question. because clearly his influence is on the wane. >> is it putin's influence that's on the wane? is this because of western strength, or is this because of people power in the streets of kiev? >> well, people power is prevailing at the moment, but people power against tanks is nothing, so the question is how ruthless is putin? he has a track record, and his track record suggests that he is absolutely unreconciled to the diminished status of russia, and this is his chance, perhaps his last and only chance, to try and recapture great power. >> let me pick up on that because what we've seen so far, and i certainly agree it's a fluid situation, is the police have either, one, returned to their headquarters or, two, are now openly in the street with the protesters. the military has made it clear that they are not going to get involved. are you -- do you really believe that the russian -- i was going to say the soviet army, the russian army ala budapest, like

prague right roll down the streets of kiev and take over? >> not kiev but parts of the country and then you would have a messy negotiation about whether the territorial integrity of this enormously important country, the size and population of spain. >> congresswoman? >> yeah, maybe, but 82 people were killed the other day, and reports are that maybe putin ordered yanukovych to do that. unclear. what did that do? that caused the people to rise up. i mean, we're seeing this all over the world. my sort of shorthand is, you know, politicians are analog and people are digital. they use social media and they won't take top-down structures anymore and sometimes it plays out badly. think egypt. but there is a possibility that putin's efforts could backfire here. and we have to be adroit, we and the rest of the world that really cares about a ukraine that has a modern pluralist t h

technocratic government. i think that's what the ukrainians want. that's what the folks at the wilson center who study this think that the ukranians want. they don't want putin, and they also don't want a european-dominated government. they want their own government. >> one other point to consider is putin really is sensitive to international investment. he wants international influence. remember, he's playing the game not only in syria but in iran. in syria his client state is again in chaos, much as we see in ukraine. things are in flux with iran so this idea that somehow he is this giant and he's controlling the west i think is misbegotten. >> he's sensitive to the international banking system which he needs to launder the money through. that's the pressure point we have. >> exactly. >> i don't know. at this point he seems to be winning in syria. >> no, he's not. how do you figure he's winning in syria? >> assad is in power. he's not turning over his chemical weapons and he's continuing to slaughter the tens of thousands of rebels. >> correct. that's not to his advantage. that's not a stable client state he can rely on. >> i understand that. >> oh, okay. >> you say the rebels are

winning? >> no. at this point it's in chaos. what i'm saying that's not good for putin and his geopolitical ambitions. >> yes. syria owes russia $10 billion. russia wants access to its port. these things are rather at risk given the state of play there. >> we have to take a break here. see you later in the program. up next, the nation's governors are heating in d.c. this week ahead of elections in 36 states this fall. democrats not missing an opportunity to criticize their republican colleagues. >> they seem more focused on passing policies that alienate women, minorities, immigrants, gays and other americans. >> we'll talk with govern er [ male announcer ] at his current pace, bob will retire when he's 153, which would be fine if bob were a vampire.

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the nation's governors are back in town for their annual winter meeting. in the past, they have often celebrated bipartisan efforts in sharp contrast to the gridlock here in washington, but this year the governors seem just as divided as our nation leaders over obamacare, jobs and social issues. joining us now, the republican governor of wisconsin, scott walker, and peter shumlin of vermont, chair of the democratic governors association. governors, welcome back to "fox news sunday." >> thanks for having us on. >> thank you. >> governor shumlin we ran a clip of you before the break bashing your republican colleagues for as you say alienating women, immigrants, gays and in a session that -- with president obama earlier this week he talked about the fact that republicans, your colleagues, are pushing the same old top-down tired economic policies. is this conference all about trying to win democratic seats? you now trail 21-29. >> no, it's not, and i guess i disagree a little bit, chris. i do think the nation's governors work together in a

bipartisan fashion to get things down because governors have to get things done. having said that, we clearly are in an election year, and when we want to talk about politics we do. my view is, and i think the president agrees, that we have seen the republican governors get elected in 2010 deploy failed economic policies that have not created jobs for the middle class who are struggling and refuse to raise minimum wages and refuse to lift the boats of working people. an instead have cut taxes for the top 1%, given goodies to the very wealthiest and charge that to the middle class. now while they have done, that they have been distracted by the same social agenda that has absorbed the tea party folks in congress going after sonograms and women making the most personal of health care decisions, going after, you know, gays and working americans, teachers, and they paid for these tax cuts by slashing education. so we just don't think that's a prescription for job growth. >> governor walker, all of you meet tomorrow at the white house with president obama. if he tries to put republicans

on the defensive, how are you going to push back? >> well, i think in this particular session, the initial point that governor shumlin mentioned i think i agree with. for example, we're going to talk about the national guard where i think there is a common agreement amongst all 50 governors that we shouldn't go back to pre-9/11 standards when it comes to the national guard in any of our starts or nationally. so there are issues we agree on. i think we get together as all the nation's governors both at the conference and the white house. the one area i would disagree with the governor is when you look at the successful governors across america that are republicans in states like mine where private sector job growth is the best from april through december of last year that it's been since 1994, a place like florida where rick scott bought the unemployment rate down five points. governor martinez and nikki haley, focused on fiscal issues like i am, and that's why we're doing well across the country. >> win big issue all governors are dealing with, i suspect is

going to come up over the next few days, is obamacare. reading about the two of you, you couldn't be on more different tracks. let me put it up on the screen. in wisconsin, governor walker, you rejected federal money to expand medicaid, and you deferred to a federal exchange to run obamacare, not a state exchange. on the other hand, in vermont, governor shumlin, you accepted money to expand medicaid and are running your own exchange. let's discuss both of those. governor shumlin, vermont's exchange, i think it's fair to say, has been a mess. >> well, no it hasn't. >> let me just finish. i mean, there have been big problems with both small businesses and individuals trying to sign up, no? >> no. listen -- >> no? >> there isn't an exchange in the country that hasn't had a challenge from the rollout. we acknowledge that. but vermont happens to be the state that has signed up more people per capita for affordable health care than any other state in the nation. including the federal exchange. you've got to keep all this in context. here's the point -- >> aren't small businesses still

having a problem because the back end hasn't been filled? >> small businesses can't sign up on the exchange. individuals have. we've gotten everybody in. here's the point. we all acknowledge, including the president and governors, getting the exchanges up was tough. but here's the challenge for, i believe, this issue for governors in this election. let things get fixed. we're fixing ours, they are fixing theirs and the federal exchange is working better. the problem for the republican governors in my view on this one is, listen, i have people come up to me every day and say, thank you, governor. i finally have health care i can afford. governors get held to a different standard on health care than congressional folks. our constituents are smart. they know we didn't pass it, we didn't vote for it. we didn't create it. we have to implement it. now, what voters want is for their governors to get health care to folks who can't afford it, to accept hundreds of millions of dollars of federal money. to help support something -- >> let me bring in governor walker on exactly that subject. i'd like you to speak to obamacare and the exchanges and whether this is just a blip or

something more serious and to governor shumlin's point, you turned down $119 million in federal money to expand medicaid. >> mm-hmm. >> a lot of people would say really? >> well, in our case i don't think the measure of success in government is how many people are dependent on the government. i want people no longer to be dependant, empower them to get good jobs and family supporting careers in the private sector. that's part of our philosophy. we did something unique. we didn't do what other states did by just not taking the medicaid expansion. we didn't take the challenges that woman with putting our taxpayers at risk. instead we found a way to do something the wisconsin way. for the first time in state's history my predecessor democrat had people on a waiting list living in poverty for health care. we cover everyone living in poverty on medicaid. everyone above it by transitions them to the marketplace. we have 224,000 more people covered than we did before. yet we don't put the taxpayers at risk. i think that's what people are looking for out of republicans or democrats.

leaders finding a unique way to reform things. >> let me follow up. what governor governor said is true. wisconsin as an example. $4.4 billion in federal money over the next decade that would help wisconsinites get affordable health care. i'm just saying in my state and other states around the country these republican governors, because they don't like the president, because they want to make a political point, are hurting their constituents. >> governor walker, 30 seconds to respond. >> because i love the taxpayers, i don't want to put them at risk. before the medicaid expansion i added $600 million more to medicaid. almost 40% of that was to fill in the federal government reneging on commitments they already made even before the medicaid expansion. that commitment is not going to be there and taxpayers across america will be on the hook. they will not be on the hook in wisconsin. >> governor walker, you are getting heat now for two local investigations in the state of wisconsin. first, when you were the milwaukee county executive, there are allegations, and in fact people have been convicted, for working on county time to

help you and the lieutenant governor get elected. here is an anti-walker ad that is running right now in wisconsin. take a look. >> the investigation is getting closer to governor walker. >> what did the president know and when did he first know it? >> what did scott walker know and when did he know it? >> now, we should point out that they have brought charges against a number of people. they brought absolutely no charges against you, but the reason this is hot again is because thousands of e-mails were released this week that indicate that you knew that public workers were working on county time in political campaigns, which is against the law. >> right, and that's just -- that's absolutely not true. and if you look at the facts out there, this is old news. this is about a case that was closed last march. a democratic district attorney in milwaukee county spent multiple years looking at all this information. 27,000-plus pages of documents that were just released have been looked at a team led by a democrat in milwaukee county and last year in march he announced the end of that case, plain and simple.

it's old news. what we have are political operatives at the dnc and dga that desperately want to switch the subject from the fact that things like us taking a $3.6 billion budget deficit and turns it into a nearly billion dollar surplus. don't want to talk about the improvements in the economy or successes we've had in our state. instead they desperately want to switch the subject on a subject that's been resolved last march. >> i want to point out again. no charges were brought against you but because of this dump of 25,000 documents it's new news to a lot of people in the state. big news in local papers in wisconsin. in one e-mail that was released this week your then chief of staff thomas nardelli, let's put this up on the screen, writes campaign and county workers that you wanted to hold daily conference calls, quote, to review events of the day or of a previous or future day so we can better coordinate sound timely responses, and in another e-mail county administrative director cynthia archer suggests that colleagues should use a private e-mail account.

i use this private account quite a bit to communicate with skw, that's you, and nardelli, the former chief of staff. question, if county workers were doing nothing wrong, why should they be using a private e-mail account? >> well, but that's exactly to my point. you had a democratic district attorney spend almost three years looking at every single one of those communications, interviewing people, talking to people. and closed the case. >> did you know there was a private e-mail account? >> it's one of those where i point out district attorney has reviewed every single one of these issues. >> you're not answering my question. >> no. because i'm not going to get into 27,000 different pieces of information. the bottom line a democrat who led the district attorney's office looked at all this, decided not to charge anything other than the individuals you mentioned, people who had worked for county in the past but don't work for me today. i think that's pretty straightforward. it's one of those things where they want to keep pushing this issue into the forefront because in the end, the folks running against us can't counter our

positive message when it comes to the economy and creating budget surpluses. >> you are in an election this year, as you point out. a lot of people talked about you possibly running for president in 2016. should republicans worry from all of this about you as a potential presidential candidate in 2016? >> no. i think we'll weigh the issues out. i think voters are much more concerns about the problems you mentioned with state and federal exchanges across the country. because that actually affects their health care. they are concerned about the economic decisions distracting from putting focus on helping private sector employers create more jobs. those are the things they should be worried about. those are the things we replaced in wisconsin where our state lost 133,000 jobs because of the poor policies of the past. instead we've created over 100,000 jobs in our state, turned a budget deficit into a surplus. those are the things voters are concerned about. >> governor walker, governor shumlin, we want to thank you both for coming in today, and we'll stay on top of all of these issues. >> thank you. >> thank you, chris. when we come back, don't expect a budget compromise president obama floated last year to show up in his new plan. the panel comes back to discuss his changing position on

entitlement reform. be s you think on facebook and share your favorite moments from today's show with other "fns" fans. @w@wg

we're going to have to take on entitlements. i think we do it quickly. >> candidate barack obama promised to work hard for entitlement reforth. the white house this week -- cost of living increases in social security and other benefit programs. we're back now with the panel.

$56 billion in new spending on the table. but taking chained cpi which is that way to lower the cost of living adjustmentment for social security, taking that off the table. george, what do you think of the new budget, the little bit what we know of it so far? >> the frugality has to end sometime. look, this is about november. in a normal -- normal time, 63% turnout in presidential elections, but only 48% in off-year elections, and that fall-off comes disproportionately from the president's party, whoever's in power. it comes also, we know, from young people, minority and single women, three pillars of the president's constituency. therefore, off-year elections are mobilization elections, therefore, the point is to arouse your base and don't demoralize it or aggravate it. therefore, you come out talking rubbish about the era of austerity, which most of us

missed, and on the republican side they say we're not going to annoy or base or divide it by taking up an issue like immigration. >> right. >> i'm not sure i'll use the word rubbish, congresswoman harman, but it's the same question. isn't this really all about politics to help democrats win in november, and in terms of policy, isn't this proposal dead on alooifl? >> well, i think it's about politics on both sides, and i think it's extremely unfortunate. i am still an unabashed supporter of simpson/bowles. i think they got it right. we didn't go there. >> let me just quickly say the bipartisan commission that came up with a serious, what, $3 trillion or $4 trillion in deficit reform. >> right. cutting entitlement reform, tax reform and spending cuts, responsible spending cuts. instead we went to sequestration which hasn't served us well in my view. that's why we have a decrease in debt and deficit. but that wasn't the right way to do it. i think this is a missed opportunity on both sides. i left congress -- >> this is the president's budget. >> sure it's the president's budget but then it sets up a response which we're going to hear about.

also one sided. >> let's talk about the president's budget. >> should he have kept the chain cpi in the budget? i think he decided he wouldn't get any credit for doing that, so the $56 billion is half defense and half domestic spending, we should put that out there, and it's offset by other cuts to -- i think it's either medicare or medicaid, so it's paid for, but nonetheless, this is not a bipartisan budget, and i think that's a missed opportunity. >> michael, i want to ask about the deficits which i discussed with the senators in an earlier segment because the white house talks a lot, and let's put it up on the screen, about the fact that in the next few years the deficits go down. 2014 it'll be $514 billion. 2015 it'll be $478 billion. but they ignore this, which is the fact that the deficits start going back up in 2016 and are back over $1 trillion a year by 2022. >> well, this is because of the looming cost of entitlements. look, i don't think it's worth bragging about the fact that we're now only borrowing $1

trillion from our children and grandchildren every two years instead of every one year. over the last 12 years the number of americans on food stamps has quadrupled. it requires a radical redefinition of the word "austerity" to say that what our country is going through right now is austerity. we should be cutting spending. we should be looking at ways to responsibly put forth an agenda that unites americans and allows them to grab on to the ladder o cut spending. the president is not interested in it. >> what about the argument, and you heard it from jay carney saying this is part of the give of the give and take. yes, he was willing to go up against his base, which was very unhappy with the idea of reducing increases in social security, reducing the increase in them, they would still go up, but it was part of a grand bargain in which republicans would ante up with tax increases. he's saying why should i give what i put on the table if the republicans take their chips

off. >> the bill that passed with a tax increase, last thing that hammed in 2013 was a tax increase. the president has perfected the art of going behind closed doors, pretending to the american people that he's going to negotiate when he's not. the president talked in his budget about changing social security and common sense reform. there has been no indication from this president that he's actually interested in coming together and reaching a grand bargain or any plan toed a the long term entitlement problems our country has. he wants to play to his base by increasing spending and the woodrow wilson view of progressism that sees no limit of government's intrusion into our lives. >> i want to switch subjects a little bit. house majority leader eric cantor issued a legislative agenda for the house this week to finally show that the gop also has its plans for the economy and for the middle class. let's put up what the republicans are offering. they want to stop obama care from cutting wages and work

hour, reduce home eat heating costs, roll back regulations that they say cost jobs and stop what they call government abuse. can republicans persuade voters it's really the gop that is looking out for the little guy, looking out to help the middle class and not the democrats? >> you yeah, they can do it by closing some of the loopholes that are on the table in terms of not increasing taxes per se depending on how you define it, but closing loopholes that you allow the wealthy to continue paying lower taxes. so you would get more tax revenue and i think that could help with some of the spending issues that we're concerned with. >> but in terms of the agenda -- >> this agenda that came out from majority leader cantor, doesn't include it. many of those things have been proposed previously and gone nowhere. to respond to what michael was saying earlier, last year the gop urged president obama include change cpi in your

budget. and when paul ryan's budget came out, nothing was in there in terms of closing loopholes or any increase in revenue. and then greg walden, the head of the republican congressional committee said this is a shocking attack on seniors. made it thoroughly political at high cost to the president. so why would the president stick his neck out again given republicans chopped it off the first time? >> in is a great opportunity for bipartisanship in washington if you're willing to take on the entrenched interests. we were thrilled to have juan at the heritage foundation talking about school choice. let's take on teacher's unions who don't want to increase choice. more student loan debt than credit card debt. mike lee's legislation would ray transform the education cartel. >> and on that rare note of bipartisanship, thank you, panel. see you next week.

up next, a special look at washington's rising star.

our website has had almost 12 million hits in the last half year. there are 140 different pieces of pmerchandise that bear her image. who is this superstar?

here is our power player of the week. meet the national zoo's baby panda. her name means precious treasure and that's what she's become to washington and the world. she turned six months old today and we were allowed to participate in a trtraining ses. >> we're trying to teach her to come toward a target. so you call her name, tap it on the edge. >> at first, she paid as much attention as my own children did as babies. but then randy gave me a piece of bamboo with sweet potato on the he said. she is liking that. >> just like any baby, her first cereal, her first fruit.

>> once she weans off her mother, bamboo will be her main diet. >> she'll grab it and chew on it. so she feels grown up when she does this. >> i for one am very proud of her. >> we watch her grow and we compare her to our own kids. >> she was with her mother almost every month. they spend much of the neat pig. >> how did you get her away from the mom? >> in the morning, mom is happy to get some alone time. >> randy says there is something about pandas that is deeply appealing to humans. >> they're so cute. they're so sweet. and i think a lot of people look at them, they're the ultimate teddy bear. >> but for all the comparisons to babies, the staff never let her climb on them. >> they are bears, they are dangerous animals. they have big claws, big teeth.

so we don't ever want them to think of us as toys. >> and when she turns four, the panda will be sent to china. >> you'll be pretty attached. >> this is something the parents can sympathize with. we're sad for us, but we'll be happy for her. so that will make things easier. >> in the meantime, randy smith loves what she's doing. >> we're help to go save a species here. to see her succeed is really what we all share. we share it here at the soouf and with the public. the pap todays belong to washington, d.c.. they belong to the world. >> she's certainly changed over the last six months. when she was born, she was the size of a stick of butter. she now tips the scales at just over 20 pounds. full grown, she'll weigh more

than 220 pounds. and that is it for today. have a great week and we'll see you next "fox news sunday". time they lost to finland. huckabee is next. canned chore -- >> tonight on huckabee. the president called 2014 a year of action. >> president is doing without congress getting involved. >> 2014 is the year of midterm election. >> you don't have 218 votes you have nothing. >> can the gop address the issue of jobs and obama care. we'll have no chance of stopping obama for two more years if we don't take more seats in the house and win the senate. >> republicans can't win because the democrats fumble the ball. they have to carry it to the goal line. tonight a huckabee special. how can the republican